The Melancholy of Yuri Meichi
by Ricky Otaku
Summary: Yuri's life as she discovered she was different, how she deals with her power as a teenager, and how she comes to realize that love was more important than she thought.


**Hello there! Here's a Yuri Meichi (aka the chairwoman) one-shot! Based on an analysis of her I made on my tumblr, as well as some headcanons. I hope you'll like how I view this mysterious character.**

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As far as she remembers, Yuri Meichi had never experienced true love.

Even as a young kid, she never felt like her parents truly loved her. In fact, she felt like it was the opposite. Not that they hate her, more that they felt indifferent towards her. It almost like they treated her as an alien, like she was different. Yuri eventually learned that they were right about something: she was different.

Yuri wasn't sure how she felt when her parents were killed in front of her eyes. They weren't the initial target of this assassination attempt, she was. And they jumped right in front of her, to protect her. Their death allowed her to live.

Yuri came to wonder that perhaps her parents did love her, that they died to allow her to live out of love for her. She thought the same way when other relatives of her, as well as friends, died the same way, to protect her. Yuri wasn't sure if she ever felt sad about it. The more she saw people died in front of her, the more she became insensitive to it. All she could feel was some kind of satisfaction, because she felt as if she was important enough so people would sacrifice themselves for her. She felt...loved.

Even with all those assassination attempts against her, Yuri never ended up injured. There was always someone to protect her and take the hit for her. Sometimes it was total strangers who come to her help. Some of them even died for her. It only made her feel even more important, as if her life worth more than all of those who died for her sake.

It all changed when she learned the truth. Apparently, she was part of a powerful and influential clan, in which some of the women possess a special ability. The Queen Bee ability, also known as the primer. A power that made one charismatic for others and allowed them to control them. And it seemed that the clan was interested in Yuri's ability and wanted her to take part in an initiation, what she had been prepared since she was a kid with all the assassination attempts.

Yuri didn't know what to think. So all these people who died for her, her family, her friends, those strangers, they didn't do it out of love. Yuri remembered that each time she was in danger, she thought about someone saving her. She wished it so hard that it came true. They protected her not from their own free will, but because they had no choice, because Yuri made them do it. She was never loved to begin with.

It didn't make Yuri sad though. It made her felt even more important, even more...powerful. She had the ability to make others do what she wanted, she had the right to use their life for her own sake, she was above them. She was superior to them. And it gave her the right over their life. After all she went through, she deserved it. She earned this right.

So she went to this initiation, Class Black. If she was already that powerful without even using purposefully her power, then how powerful would she be if she used her ability on purpose.

So she did. And she won Class Black in just six days.

It was so easy. All she had to do was to charm them, and they did everything she told them to. They literally fight each other over her, because Yuri made them love her. But it wasn't true love. They were just acting according to Yuri's plan, and they ended up all defeated. Of course they would. How could she have possibly lost against some inferior and powerless being?

And this is how she became the queen, the leader of her clan. It was because she was the best, the strongest, the more powerful of them. This is what she thought, that she was superior in any aspect to others. Even among those of her clan, those with the same power as her, she was the best.

So she enjoyed being a queen. She used her ability to get what she wanted from who shwantsnt, either for more influence or simply for affection. She could get them to love her without much effort, or gain more power. She enjoyed her youth in a way almost no one else could.

And then it became boring. There was nothing unexpected anymore. Everyone just kept doing what she wants. There was no more thrill in charming and dating, no more thrill in gaining more power. It was like the entire world was her playground, everyone was her toys, yet she was bored of playing with puppets. She would rather enjoy it if her toys acted on their own, if they were more unexpected, it would be more entertaining for her.

So she became an observer.

She shut herself in Myojo Academy and had barely any contact with the outside world anymore. She let others take care of business and only gave order from the shadow. It was better this way. This way she could observe how people usually act without her influence, it was so intriguing and fascinating, especially the young ones. This is why she took a liking for childrens. They were so full of dreams, hopes, and energy. They hadn't been tainted by the adult world yet. They were those Yuri prefer to watch, especially the young ladies.

One of her favourites children was Hanabusa Sumireko. Just like her, Sumireko had a past full of assassination attempts against her. But unlike her, she didn't have the queen bee ability. Still, the young kid viewed herself as a queen, and wanted to be stronger. Yuri found it quite amusing. A powerless kid who wanted to become stronger, who thinks of herself as a queen. So fascinating.

Yuri managed to get close to her by being her private teacher. Yuri made sure to not use her queen bee ability on her. She wanted to observe her when she was in her most normal state. Of course, Yuri couldn't help her usual attractive vibe, she couldn't help but appear charismatic to others. But her ability was weaker on kids because of their low pheromones. But she still managed to gain Sumireko's trust easily.

She then had an idea to make things more interesting. Yuri told her about a certain girl around her age, a girl who had a similar past as her: Ichinose Haru. Yuri was curious of how Sumireko would react. Would she relate to the other girl, or would she comes to view her as a rival? Seems like it was the second option. She viewed Haru as a rival queen, someone to defeat, in order to prove she was stronger than her. Haru's existence was what made her obsessed with the idea of being the strongest, the real queen, to struggle with a desire for power. Yuri was pleased with this result.

She found it quite funny how a powerless girl wanted to defeat a queen bee, how she thought she could be stronger, how she could be a queen too. It was almost pitiful to see, so desperate. Yuri was really curious to see how far she would go to become stronger. She also had the feeling she would be a fine final adversary for Haru. When she learned that Sumireko had modified her body and become a cyborg felt proud of herself and satisfied, knowing that she was most likely responsible for that.

She also got herself a kid. And not any kid. The heir of the Kuzunoha clan. A little uneducated and rude child, who didn't even have a name. Yuri knew that this girl could be beneficial to her, a great servant. She just needed to educate her to be a proper servant, a great tool for her desire. She named her Nio, since she was now her possession. It wasn't easy to educate her to become an elegant and polite young lady, but it was easy to gain her respect and admiration. After all, with her queen bee aura, gaining anyone admiration had never been hard for her. Since she wanted to make Nio her servant, she did used some of her queen bee ability on her, to assure her obedience and loyalty. Nio was still an interesting person to observe when she was at school, but when she was with her, she had to act the way she wanted her to. After all, with all this isolation and solitude, Yuri was glad to have someone with her, someone who couldn't do otherwise than obey her.

And there was another child who caught her interest: Ichinose Haru. If wasn't only because she was a potential queen bee. There are many girls in the clan who shared the same ability. No, there was something special about Haru, Yuri knew it. She felt like she had a good potential for greatness.

One day Haru's mother, Ichinose Hinata, another member of the clan, came to make a request to the clan. Unlike Yuri or Haru, she didn't have the queen bee ability.

"Leave my daughter alone! I know what you're planning for her, please don't! She doesn't have any power, she's just a normal girl, my girl...she's just a little girl. Please don't try to kill her, just let her have a normal childhood, I'm begging you!" Hinata had said.

Of course, the clan didn't listen to her. Why would they? Yuri herself ignored this request. She knew Haru had the primer ability, Hinata's request was for her a proof. Yuri was sure that she didn't really love her daughter, that she was only acting this way because Haru commanded her to. It had to be. Haru must be really powerful if she managed to control her mother since such a young age, she wasn't just controlling her mother, she had brainwashed her to the point she genuinely thought she loved Haru. That was what Yuri chose to believe at that time, because if her own parents didn't love her and only protected her because she ordered them too, then it should be the same for Haru, right?

Then just as expected, Hinata died while protecting her daughter, along with her husband and sons. Yuri didn't feel sad or guilty about it. It was just something normal. Ordinary people had to die for the queen bee's sake, to make her stronger. Their lives didn't matter as much as the queen bees' lives. Hinata and her husband had served their role, they gave birth to a powerful queen bee and died for her. It was a shame for their two sons though. Even if they couldn't have the queen bee ability, they still carry the blood of the clan. They could have begotten potential queen bees. But, it wasn't like the clan was short on people, two lives less wouldn't change anything. As simple carriers of the clan blood with no power, their lives were expendable and easily replaceable.

Yuri organized lots of Class Black to test multiple potential queen bees. They all died. Yuri didn't feel bad about it. After all, it was their fault if they weren't strong enough. Weak queen bees were a useful as simple blood carrier and worker bees. Only the strong ones had the right to live and contribute to the clan.

And then the Class Black she was waiting for happened. Ichinose Haru's initiation. Yuri was more careful in her choice of assassins, she wanted to have the perfect ones to test Haru's power. When she looked at those who wanted to apply profiles, Yuri noticed that each of them fit another assassin, like they were opposite, yet complemented each other. They were almost like two sides of the same coin, or even soulmates. Yuri found an interest in them and was curious to see how their relationship would evolve if she put them together. So she made them roommates.

Then there was Azuma Tokaku. Yuri had the feeling she would play an important part in Haru's development. And turned out she was right. Tokaku proposed herself to be Haru's protector. Just as she expected, Haru used someone to protect herself, it must be the queen bee ability.

But Yuri ended up quite surprised about this Class Black. Haru wasn't like she thought she would be. She was truly pure, innocent, naive, good-hearted, generous and kind. At first Yuri thought she was only pretending, but she was forced to admit later that she was wrong. Haru was genuinely a good person, and she didn't even think she had a power or was special. She just wanted to be normal.

Despite her surprised, Yuri wasn't disappointed. After all, if everything had been according to her plan, it would have been predictable. If Haru was really a cold, ruthless and manipulative girl, then it would have been boring. She would have just been...a copy of Yuri.

Yuri was glad that Haru ended up being her opposite, it made things different. Yet, Yuri was a little bit disturbed by the conclusion. There was no doubt that Haru possessed the queen bee power and used it on Tokaku at the end to prevent her to commit suicide. But the fact Tokaku really tried to kill her prove that before that, Haru wasn't using it. So did it mean that...Tokaku really loves Haru? And what about the others? Did Hinata really love her daughter? Did all the people who died for Haru love her? Perhaps. Yuri was sure that in her case, they didn't really love her. It seems that Haru was different from her in another way too, she was loved, she was able to be genuinely loved by others without the use of her power, and it was what makes her truly special, even among the other queen bees.

Haru was loved, Yuri was loveless. She was admired, respected, feared, lusted and worshipped, but not loved. Though Yuri loved herself, but it wasn't the same. She came to the conclusion that someone like Haru could be beneficial for their clan and had the potential to make them evolve.

Then there was Nio. Did she truly love Yuri? Maybe. Yuri knew her power didn't work well on kids, and she knew Nio since she was a child. Nio began to like her as a kid, and her love grew stronger when she became a teenager. So perhaps the queen bee ability only make her already existing love be stronger, that at the start, she already loves Yuri to begin with. That was what Yuri eventually decided to believe.

But Haru didn't accept to become a leader right after she survived Class Black. It took her some time before she came to see Yuri, to take control of her hive, Myojo, and dethroned her.

"My family and many of my friends and innocent died because of the clan, and you're partly responsible for this. But I don't resent you for this. I know this is how you had been raised, how you were taught to think. The clan itself is the problem, not you, or any other specific person. This is why I'll take your place. I'll change the clan for the best. I'll create a world where no one has to die anymore, a world where girls like me, and you, can finally have the normal childhood they deserve," Haru had said.

For the first time in her life, Yuri had been left speechless. What she heard was so pure and innocent, yet so naive. But still, she had the feeling that if someone could succeed to change the clan, it had to be Haru. Yuri felt that for the first time, she had met someone equal to her, someone who could even do something she herself was unable to: not only make the clan more powerful, but to change it for the best. So Yuri hand over her throne without a fight and Haru became the next chairwoman. Nio complained about it, and Yuri felt happy about it. She really had the feeling that Nio genuinely cared for her, even if she was still relieved to have her under her control. Love was secondary for her after all, all she wanted was to have her faithful servant by her side. Love was just a bonus.

This is how Yuri ended up travelling the world, with Nio by her sides, leaving the clan's care into Haru's hands. She had come to view her clan the same as the world, a playground, a game, and she was curious to observe how Haru will change it.

And who knows, perhaps she'll finally understand what love truly was and felt it for real, like the love Haru and Tokaku was sharing. Perhaps she would discover it with Nio. She was just in her thirties, she had plenty of time to explore things now that she was freed from her clan's obligation. All she did in her life was for the clan's sake, now she could finally just think about herself, with no worries. She was happy to learn that most of the roommates had ended up together romantically. Looks like she was right about them.

Perhaps it will be the same for her and Nio.


End file.
